Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

Compare: "Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time", Spenser, The Faerie Queene, bk. ii, canto xii, st. 75; "Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, before they be withered", Wisdom of Solomon, ii, 8; Pflücke Rosen, weil sie blühn (tr. "Gather roses while they bloom"), Gleim, Benutzung der Zeit